Meet Iestyn Davies, Broadway's New Favorite Singer

In Claire van Kampen’s new play Farinelli and the King, which just opened on Broadway, King Philippe V of Spain (Mark Rylance) is on the verge of entirely losing his marbles until a visit from the renowned castrato opera singer Farinelli seems to cure him—or at least temporarily do away with his symptoms. And it’s no wonder that music seems to do the monarch some good, Farinelli’s singing is done by the celebrated countertenor Iestyn Davies. (Sam Crane plays the singer when he’s not singing; it sounds confusing but trust us, it works.) Davies is something of an operatic superstar; just a few months back, he won raves for his work in The Exterminating Angel at the Metropolitan Opera, and earlier this year he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music.

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Iestyn Davies in Farinelli and the King.

Here, Davies speaks to T&C—a bit groggily, as it was the morning after opening night—about his first role on Broadway, using music as a cure, and whether or not there are really ghosts in Broadway’s Belasco Theatre.

This is your first time on Broadway. What was the big opening night like?

In opera, we never do previews. We just open. So it’s funny to have done two weeks of shows only to have people get really excited for one night. But it went well.

What brought you to a show like this? It’s not every day there’s this kind of part for a guy with your voice.

My agent said that someone at the Globe had written a play about Farinelli, and did I want to be in it. My first reaction was to say no, because as a musician who’s interested in history, I know a lot about Farinelli and the repertoire I sing was written for different castrati who had ranges closer to mine. Farinelli had a three-octave range, which is unheard of, and not many people can sing what he sang. I initially thought they’d gone down the wrong path and it wouldn’t be great for me, so I said no.

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What changed your mind?

Claire van Kampen persisted. She assured me the play should be about the power of music and the way the beauty of somebody singing can affect people. She rang me personally and explained that this wouldn’t be based historically on what Farinelli sang but based on a story that’s true but that we don’t know a lot about, so in a way it would up for grabs in terms of what I wanted to sing. We went down that path of making it comfortable for me and convincing for the audience. That was enough for me.

I’d also never been to the Globe before, so I wasn’t a big Mark Rylance fan when I first got the call. It was nice to go into that not having that distance between myself and Mark, which you can get when somebody’s very famous. I got to know him as a normal human being and then I Googled him and realized who he was.

Joan Marcus

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How is working in a play that happens to feature operatic music different than being in an opera?

When I’m standing on stage at the opera, I’m integral to the drama in terms of what I’m singing about. In this play, it’s not just incidental music, but the text I’m singing has no relevance to the script. My headspace isn’t that I need to be Farinelli in this mood or that mood, I’m more like a ghost. It doesn’t feel like an opera or a recital, instead it’s something in-between. Then, on a practical basis, doing six shows a week for 16 weeks is a lot for me—that’s probably the same number of times I’ve sung any opera in any performance for the last decade.

Speaking of ghosts, the Belasco Theatre is said to be haunted. Have you seen anything unusual?

I don’t believe in ghosts, so I keep wanting to see it and be proved wrong. There are supposed to be two, really, and there are very trustworthy people working at the theater who will claim to have seen them. There’s a corridor backstage to get from stage right to stage left, and it’s a very cold corridor full of ladders, and I always stop there and say, “OK, I’m ready, where are you,” but nothing ever happens.

Is there a difference between singers and actors in the way they behave off stage? Is one group more rowdy?

One of the most enjoyable things about this process is that we’re in the same building night after night, not only doing the same play but with the same people. It’s a cliché, but it’s a family. In the opera world, you’re more like a guest of people who have their own life in the opera house.

Working in a company of actors, they have their own rituals. We share one big dressing room, so we’re all in there together, and we have a large section backstage that we call “the pub” with sofas and a fridge. We hang out there together. And every night, about 30 minutes before the audience comes in, we set up a volleyball net in the theater itself and play a bastardized version of volleyball called aisleball, which is a tradition from the Globe. There are lots of complicated rules, but it’s great team building.

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Iestyn Davies and Sam Crane, both as Farinelli.

Joan Marcus

Who’s the best player?

I can tell you who the worst are: The musicians. They’re very delicate about hurting their hands. We also have to hang special curtains not to destroy the Belasco’s Tiffany lamps. They’re very expensive.

This is a play about a man who feels music is keeping his madness at bay. What do you listen to in order to feel better?

I think what the play is saying is rather than the King using music that art is integral to the background of life. I have music on all the time, and I spend my life in music, so hopefully my own madness is just already being kept at bay.

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